Red Sox third baseman, Pablo Sandoval, joined Chris Ryan to preview the upcoming season, analyze the new additions to the team, and talk about his personal hopes for a better season and for the team in 2016. Red Sox fans had high hopes last year when the team signed free agents like Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez, and Rick Porcello. However, the team suffered its second consecutive losing season with only 78 wins and 84 losses and finished a distant 15 games out of first place. Baseball fans tend to be optimists every spring; but, especially, when the Red Sox showed some signs of improvement last fall and made some good signings in the offseason.
Pablo Sandoval is hoping to bounce back from a disappointing 2015 campaign. The Kung Fu Panda, as he is known, is a career .288 hitter who only hit .245 last year. Things got so bad against left handed pitching that the switch hitter gave up hitting from the right side. He worked hard in the off season to shed some weight and to recover his right handed swing. Sandoval is encouraged by the acquisitions which the team has made to prepare for the 2016 season–especially an improved bull pen and a pitching ace like David Price. The Red Sox third baseman described his new teammates as guys who are winners but know how to stay loose. In the interview, the Panda described how difficult it can be to maintain a balance of having fun, after all it is a game, and maintaining the necessary intensity over the length of the long season with its many ups and downs.
Red Sox Nation is hopeful that the two other big free agent signings of 2015 will also have bounce back years with Hanley Ramirez making a smooth transition to first base and pitcher Rick Porcello recovering his winning form.
